The Digital Divide: Current and Future Research Directions - MISRC ...

diversity of its workforce, Norris and Conceicao [2004] point out that those without
online access are shut out of Internet-based training and education. They note that the
digital divide creates a gap in who is able to take advantage of online education
opportunities, which then translates into fewer employment opportunities for the
disconnected. Lindsay [2005] uses a case study of the efforts of the city of Glasgow to
provide information about job opportunities to unemployed individuals through the
Internet. The author argues that providing such information to this group of people via
the Internet is problematic since many of these individuals will likely be those without
access. Their public policy recommendations are that public access to the Internet and
ICT training are needed to make the Internet an effective channel to deliver this
information to the unemployed. In a related sociological study, Mossberger et al. [2003]
conducted a telephone survey of 1,837 Americans in 2001 to examine whether people felt
their job prospects were limited due to a lack of online access or computer skills.
Economics provides another useful theoretical perspective when considering the
impact of the digital divide on the workforce. Research using this perspective has
examined the impact of computer usage in the workplace on changes in wages for white-
collar workers. As more workplaces require IT skills, the digital divide may be
perpetuated between those who are required to use technology on the job and those that
don’t face such requirements. Using CPS data from 1984 to 1989, Krueger [1993] finds
that workers who use computers at work earned 10% to 15% more than other workers, all
else being held equal. DiNardo and Pischke [1997] replicate the findings of Krueger by
studying the wage differentials of workers in Germany for a variety of white collar tools
such as pencils, calculators and chairs. In that study, they take into account a variety of
individual fixed effects that were not available to Krueger. They conclude that white-
collar workers who use computers possess unobserved skills, which might have little to
do with computers, but which are rewarded in the labor market. Autor et al. [1998] also
used CPS data and find that for both manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors,
increases in utilization of more-skilled workers are greater in the most computer-
intensive industries. However, they stop short of claiming causality. Overall, these
studies show that while IT skills are being required in more jobs, the direct impact on
wages is unclear.
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